


Just the Three of Us

by Vashti (tvashti)



Series: My Father's Child [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Awesome Natasha Romanov, Awesome Pepper Potts, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fatherhood, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Meet the Family, Secret Identity, Secrets, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sort Of, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Is Not Helping, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, some proofreading we die liek mne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23756920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvashti/pseuds/Vashti
Summary: Bruce has only a few minor questions for his daughters: Who? What? Where? Why? and How?
Series: My Father's Child [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/545707
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Post BTVS S7 but without the comic-y goodness, just Cleveland (in the background). Post "The Avengers" and pre-everything-else.
> 
> Chronologically, this follows "My Daughters' Eyes".

Although it was closer to lunchtime than breakfast in New York, Buffy’s and Dawn’s internal clocks were still attuned to the West Coast, which was why the Summers sisters were making happy noises over their pancake order while Bruce, Tony and Pepper were debating whether eggplant parm counted as a healthy lunch. (Pepper was officially down as a _No_.)

Buffy and Dawn were in New York to check on their father, Dr. Bruce Banner aka the Hulk, and break the news that he had two biological daughters, not one. Like most of the nation, they had watched the Battle of New York live on television from the, relative, safety of their Sunnydale home.

Unlike most Americans, they had skin in the game. It hadn’t mattered to them that the skin was green and virtually indestructible. Both young women knew that some of the worst wounds sustained in battle were invisible to the eye. They also knew Bruce didn’t know about Dawn’s former existence as a ball of mystical energy—or anything else that went along with it.

Which, now that the discussion of healthy lunches had wound down, was the first thing Tony pounced on. “So do you do tricks?” He was pointing his coffee mug at Dawn, but with the sisters sitting so closely together, and both being a little more than normal, it could have applied to either of them. Not that Tony knew that.

Only Dawn’s long arm across Buffy’s chest stopped her older sister from jumping up and causing Tony bodily harm.

“Oh come on, Dawnie!” she whined. “He totally deserves it. I promise to hold back,” she added in a tone that was too perky to be believable.

“I am sure Pepper can control him,” Dawn said, far more reasonably than her sister would have liked.

Eyebrow quirked, Pepper looked over at her boyfriend. “For a certain value of control. Tony prides himself on being a wildcard.”

“Bruce…” Buffy pleaded.

“Bruce…” Tony said in kind.

“Children, play nice.”

Buffy’s and Tony’s pouts were disturbingly familiar. “I’m his biological daughter.”

“I’m his best friend!”

“I’ve known him longer!”

“I’ve never lied to him!”

Buffy opened her mouth to retaliate, then snapped it shut again. She swore. “I hate it when he’s right.”

“You’re not the only one,” a male voice said from behind the sisters.

Their jaws were already halfway to their knees before they’d even turned to see who the yummy, yummy deep voice belonged to. The defined musculature, chiseled features, intelligent blue eyes and dark blond hair did nothing for their ability to close their mouths.

Rolling his eyes, Bruce reached over and chucked each woman’s jaw back into place. “It’s lucky for you that JARVIS keeps us pest free, or there’d be an entire swarm of flies in your mouths. Steve, allow me to introduce my daughters, Buffy and Dawn. You’ll have to excuse them and their sudden inability to string two words together.”

“Um…” from Buffy.

“Uh…” from Dawn.

“You know, I never imagined you girls meeting my team—especially since I’ve only had one for less than a month—but if I had this isn’t what I would have pictured.”

“Wha—” Buffy shook herself. “I’m sorry, what was that Bruce?”

Dawn was still staring, a dreamy look on her face as her hands seemed to rise of their own accord. Catching the movement from the corner of her eye, Buffy easily snagged them with her own, trying to make it look natural.

Not nearly as embarrassed as she probably should have been—or even as embarrassed as yummy, yummy Steve was on their behalf if the blush and neck-scratching were anything to go by—Buffy shrugged and said, “It’s not every day you get to meet a walking, talking, breathing national and cultural treasure in the flesh.”

“Two words. Strung together.” Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “To be fair, this is closer to what I imagined.”

“Buffy,” Dawn began as she came out of her lustful stupor. “Why are you holding my hands?”

“Because you’re my baby sister and I love you?”

The look Dawn leveled on her sister spoke of anything but love.

“Because I saw him first?”

The walking, talking, breathing national and cultural treasure turned beet red.

Behind them, Tony scoffed. “Capsicle here is old enough to be your grandfather!”

Buffy smirked as Dawn rolled her eyes and said, “Is that all? Please.”

Which had the unfortunate side effect of bringing Bruce’s attention to the daughter he was, currently, most interested in following up with. “Buffy, sweetheart, you’ve been dating men _older_ than someone old enough to be your grandfather?”

Tony leaned over to Bruce. “You know for someone who’s not actively a dad-person, you sounded really dad-like right there.”

Which was greeted with nods all around the table. “Not that I remember my father,” Steve added as a caveat.

“Or had a very good relationship with mine,” was Tony’s.

“Ditto here,” from Buffy.

“I’m with Steve-licious,” from Dawn, followed closely by a sharp, “Ow! Buffy! What even?!”

“I. Saw. Him. First.”

“It’s not finders keepers!”

“You’re only saying that because you didn’t see him first.”

Dawn’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Girls!” Bruce snapped before whatever counter-argument Dawn was building could make it into the open air. “Steve, I apologize for my rude offspring treating you like an object and not an autonomous human being with thoughts and feelings and the right to not to be verbally groped. They’re clearly jet-lagged.” He all but growled the last in Buffy and Dawn’s direction.

They had the grace to look ashamed and feign large yawns. Dawn even stretched. “Very jet-lagged,” she said.

“The jet-laggiest,” Buffy added. “We’re sorry. You _are_ gorgeous—Bruce, he is!” she hastily tacked on when Bruce gave her the hairy eyeball. “—but pretty or not, that doesn’t give us the right to treat you like a thing. Like I said, we’re very sorry.”

“Majorly sorry,” Dawn added, sounding genuinely contrite.

Steve, for his part, seemed to be just as embarrassed by their apologies as he was by the ogling and cat-fighting. “Uh, it happens?”

“Yes, Buffy, how have you dated men chronologically older than Captain Rogers?” Bruce asked again. “Does this have something to do with that Vampire Slayer thing you mentioned.”

_That_ seemed to peak Steve’s interest. “You’re a vampire slayer?”

“ _The_ Vampire Slayer actually—capital V, capital S. There’s only one slayer at a time.”

Dawn poked her. “Faith.”

Buffy’s eyes widened. “Oh, right! Except that there’re two of us at the moment? Although,” she squinted as she glanced up at the ceiling in thought, “I guess it’s still technically only one of us, since one of us is—”

Dawn poked her again.

“—not currently able to perform her slayer-y duties,” Buffy said, obviously modifying whatever it was she had been about to say.

“I thought you were a myth,” Steve said before anyone could call Buffy and Dawn out on their byplay.

Buffy shrugged. “Not so mythic anymore. Or ever, actually. Legendary? Kinda,” she added with a smile.

Which got her a warning, _“Buffy”_ from Bruce.

“What? What did I do?”

“No flirting with Steve while I’m trying my hand at being dad-like.”

Dawn perked. “Does that—”

“No!” from both Bruce and Buffy.

“It’s like the secrets of health class all over again,” she groused. Which garnered confused stares from heretofore silent Tony and Pepper, and a “Health class?” from Steve.

“Uh…” Bruce closed his eyes as he tried to switch gears. Pepper came to his rescue by saying, “Probably a more graphic version of whatever was taught in your home economics classes, Steve. Or perhaps health and hygiene when you were enlisted.”

“Oh. Oh. That’s…that’s probably good.” He was blushing, mind probably stuck on “more graphic…”, but seemed unfazed otherwise. “So, uh, Vampire Slayers—capital V, capital S—are real and there’s only one, right?”

“One at a time,” Buffy clarified.

“At a time…” Steve nodded. “That makes more sense. You seem a little young to be both Bruce’s daughter and liberating villages from creatures of the night during World War II.”

“Ooo, there was a slayer liberating villages during the war? That sounds…” Buffy frowned. “That sounds awful, actually. Ugh, vampires, I swear. Total opportunists.”

“Which might also explain how and why the slayer of that time also had to save a French unit.”

“Oh really?” Dawn and Buffy said in unison. “Do tell,” from Buffy and “That must have been Slayer Clotilde,” from Dawn.

Buffy turned to her sister. “How do you know this?”

“Unlike _some people_ , I have actually read the Watchers journals.”

“What Watchers journals? What Watchers?” Bruce asked before the sisters could go at it again.

Tony stood up. “This is bo-ring. Vampire Slayers, vampires terrorizing ignorant villagers, half-starved soldiers having visions in the night, _vampires_! Give me science and hard evidence or let me go back to my workshop.”

Steve glowered at Tony. “Those villagers may not have had the resources you do, but that doesn’t make them ignorant. And the soldiers—”

“It is a proven fact that hunger can distort perception, Grandpa America.”

Rolling her eyes, Buffy reached over and grabbed the steak knife out of Tony’s right hand. Tellingly, Dawn took one look at the sharp knife and immediately hopped off her stool to hug Bruce around the neck.

He eyed her. “What are you doing?”

“I figure you’re, like, a zillion times less likely to go green with my fragile little self hanging off you. Plus…” She squeezed him gently. “Hugs release the happy drugs. Alright, so hug me back already!”

Bruce chuffed despite himself, as he reached up with one hand to return Dawn’s hug.

“Good work,” Buffy said. Just before she jammed Tony’s knife through her palm.

Nearly the entire table jumped up, shouting.

_“What the hell!”_

_“Buffy!”_

_“JARVIS, call--”_

_“Down Bruce!”_

Buffy, for her part, was clutching her injured hand to her chest as she backed away from both Steve and Tony. She grasped the knife handle. “Stay back, or I pull it out!”

Both men stopped in their tracks. It was so quiet they could hear Pepper’s conversation with the building’s medical wing. “Buffy, please,” Steve said, hands outstretched but otherwise unmoving, “please do not pull the knife out of your hand.”

Wrinkling her nose, she regarded the steak knife in her palm and the blood welling and dripping around it. “I shouldn’t pull this out, should I?”

“No!” all three men shouted loud enough to turn Pepper’s head.

“Dawnie, you got a handle on Big Green?”

“Uh...sure!” Buffy peered around Tony and Steve to see her sister completely wrapped around Bruce, who was looking more pale than green.

She flashed Dawn a bright smile. “Right on.” Then she pulled the knife out of her hand.

_“Buffy!”_

“Pepper, call the medical wing--”

“They’re already on their way, Tony.”

“Eh...you may want to call them off,” Dawn called out over her shoulder.

Steve swore softly under his breath as Buffy held up her hand. She’d wiped the gush of blood with a dishcloth she’d snagged from a counter. The cut, jagged and long from Buffy’s messy removal, was closing up as they watched. She flipped her hand around just as the cut completely closed.

“Look! No scars,” she said, eyes and teeth flashing.

Dawn shrieked as Bruce stood up with Dawn on his back and rushed over to her. “You’re okay.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t ever do that again!”

“Promise. Well, at least not on purpose.”

“Not on purpose?!”

Dawn yelped again as Bruce began to bulk up under her. “Buffy!”

“Bruce, Bruce…” Buffy stepped in closer enough to wrap her arms around her father’s waist, between his back and Dawn’s stomach. She could hear his heart pounding beneath her ears, feel his laboured breathing, and his sweat beginning to soak through the t-shirt he was wearing. “I’m okay. I swear I’m okay.”

His arms came to wrap around her in a fierce hug that would have made an ordinary person’s ribs creak. If he got any greener, hers definitely would.

“Please, Bruce,” Dawn said from his back. She rubbed her cheek against his hair. “She’s annoying, but she’s fine.”

“Dawn!”

“What?”

“You’re not making with the helping!”

“I’m not the one who stabbed myself to make a point to Mr. I-Refuse-To-Believe!”

“Well at least I--”

“Girls!” Bruce snapped. Everyone in the room took several judicious steps back. Buffy and Dawn, however, started giggling. Wrapped around Bruce as they were, they could feel the moment his shoulders began to shrink and his heart slowed. Bruce even joined in their laughter.

Tony pulled out the nearest stool and sat down. He dropped his head into his hands. “My heart can’t take this.”

Frowning, Steve said, “Isn’t that thing in your chest like a pacemaker?”

“You know what a pacemaker is?” Tony said, looking up from hands.

“I’m a man out of time, Tony, not an idiot.”

Tony snorted. Before he could open his mouth to retort, however, Pepper was striding into the center of their tableau. “So everyone is alive, yes?”

The sisters shared a look before turning to Pepper. “We’re good!” they chirped.

“Well thank goodness for that, but, next time, please don’t try to outdo Tony. Even our insurance coverage will only go so far.”

Buffy had the grace to blush before her idol. “Sorry, Pepper.”

“What about us?” Tony said, gesturing to the rest of them.

Bruce forcibly tucked his daughter closer to his chest before she could respond. “How about we move this conversation far away from pointy metal object, if not the temptation to use them. Dawn…”

“Yeah, Bruce.”

“Down, please.”

“Oops! Sorry, Bruce.”

Dawn and Buffy both disentangled themselves from their father. Tony was there in an instant to look at Buffy’s hand for himself. He poked her pink-tinted palm hard enough that it should have hurt. Instead Buffy glared and snatched her hand away.

Steve slung an arm around the other man’s shoulder, manhandling him in the direction of the living room. “You heard Bruce: _away_ from temptation.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Buffy.”

“Yeah, Bruce?”

“What is a Vampire Slayer, capital V, capital S? What is a Watcher? And how are you one?”

Buffy and Dawn shared a speaking look across Bruce, who was sitting between them. “Uh…”

The six of them were clustered into a smaller seating area in the great room beyond the kitchen. Pepper and Tony were sharing a loveseat across from Dawn, Bruce and Buffy, a low-slung coffee table between them. Steve had folded his long square frame into a modern armchair that just barely managed to contain him, facing the two couches and a cold fireplace.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “You can’t take it back now,” she told her sister.

Whining, Buffy squirmed in her seat. “This never goes well.”

“He already basically knows.”

Buffy raised her hand. “Me. I’m a Vampire Slayer.”

“ _The_ Vampire Slayer,” Dawn said.

“ _The_ Vampire Slayer,” Buffy repeated, pouting. “That’s the reason I healed so fast. I’m harder to kill in general. I’m faster, athletic,” she said, ticking the traits off with her fingers. “I have a preternatural affinity for just about any weapon I can get my hands on, especially if it’s melee, but I’ve never met a weapon I couldn’t get the basics of in seconds. Uh...better reflexes, eyesight, and hearing.” She looked over at her sister. “Did I miss anything?”

Dawn frowned. “Quips?”

“I don’t think Giles would agree.”

“Who’s Giles?” Bruce asked.

“Ah! He’s my Watcher. Unofficially.”

“And a Watcher is…”

“The person in charge of taking care of a slayer’s training, upbringing, cover story, travel plans.” Buffy shrugged. “Whatevs.”

Eyes narrowed, Tony said, “You mentioned another slayer. A Faith. That sounds like a girl’s name.”

“Because it is a girl’s name.”

“And this Giles is a man.”

The sisters shared another speaking look. Buffy gave him the hairy eyeball as she nodded. “Ye-ah. Giles is totally a guy. Old and kinda stodgy, but male.”

“Soooo are all Slayers female and all Watchers male?”

Buffy’s jaw dropped, but it was Dawn that snapped, “Are you insinuating something about Giles?”

“If the lechery fits--” Tony recoiled as Buffy tried to launch herself at him.

Bruce caught her before she could properly get off the couch. “Just let me at him, Bruce!”

“Sweetheart, you have to admit that it does sound…questionable.” Bruce raised his hands in surrender when she shot him a look. “Think of it from our perspective.”

Still fuming, Buffy sat back on the couch, arms crossed over her chest. “Dawn, you give them the spiel. As if Giles would ever!”she added under her breath.

Caught somewhere between being offended on Giles’ behalf with Buffy, and deeply amused at her sister’s reaction, Dawn haltingly gave the gathered group – Bruce, Tony, Steve, Pepper, and Natasha who had wandered in behind them, and was now perched on Steve’s chair – the standard speech. “Which also means that Buffy can sense demons to a certain extent.”

Silence reigned in the cavernous living room as everyone processed what Dawn had said. The first to recover was Natasha. “I’ve never heard the whole speech before.”

Dawn and Buffy looked at her, surprised. “You have more than a passing familiarity with Slayers?” Dawn asked.

“In my previous life, we were taught how to avoid them. My guess is they picked up a pre-Slayer by accident once--”

“They’re called Potentials.”

“--and discovered they had bitten off far more than they could chew. A fascinating thought, considering what very big teeth the Red Room had. They probably would have kept her if they could have.”

Buffy frowned. “Does the Red Room ring any bells to you?”

Dawn shook her head. She looked at Natasha. “Supernatural?”

“No.”

“Thank God,” Steve muttered. Natasha, sitting on the back of the couch next to him, snickered at his fervency. “There there…” She petted his perfectly styled hair, easily avoiding the large hand he swatted in her general direction.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Would you two stop with the foreplay already.”

Natasha laughed. Pepper swatted his arm. Steve turned red.

Dawn nudged Buffy’s side with her elbow. “It’s just like being home.”

Nodding, Buffy said, “All we’re missing are the donuts.”

Bruce cleared his throat. “Can we more or less get back on track? Please. You know, where you explain how you fight... _demons_ for a living?”

Buffy frowned. “They don’t actually pay me.”

“Sucks to be you, kid.”

“Tony!”

“Ow! What did I say this time?”

Sighing heavily, Buffy said, “Unfortunately, he’s right. I’m the longest lived slayer ever, but the benefits are zero. Zilch. Nada.”

Dawn snorted. “They probably didn’t expect you to live this long.”

Bruce paled.

“Dawn!” Buffy jerked her chin in Bruce’s general direction.

“Sorry! Sorry, Bruce. I-I didn’t mean it like that. No one actually wants Buffy to die. Like, ever!”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” The sisters shared another speaking look.

Sighing, Bruce scrubbed his hands over his face. When he pulled his hands away, he leveled his gaze on the four people sitting across from him and his daughters. “Do you guys mind if the three of us have a moment? I have a feeling there are some things here that aren’t quite ready for public consumption.”

“Yeah,” Buffy muttered, “what he said.”

Steve and Natasha stood almost immediately, followed swiftly by Pepper. Tony was last to rise, languorously stretching his arms over his head. “Only because it’s you, Big Guy.”

“Pepper…”

She smiled. “Of course, Bruce. JARVIS--”

“Yes, Miss Potts?”

All signs of ease and languor instantly fled as Tony pouted. “Oh come on, Pep!”

“--please activate privacy controls in this room until Dr. Banner inactivates them,” she went on as if Tony hadn’t spoken.

“Of course, Miss Potts. Privacy controls now activated.”

Pepper smiled. “Thank you, JARVIS. Come on, Tony. Or I’ll have Natasha carry you.”

Tony shot a glare in her direction. “Look Natalatasha…”

Natasha’s answering grin was wolfish. “You did once say you wanted one.”

Buffy and Dawn shared a look. _“Natalatasha?”_

Hands up, Tony swiftly backed away from the shortest person in the room like she was holding a flame-thrower and he was covered in straw. “Uh, I’ll be in my workshop.”

Pepper sighed with a kind of happy contentment as she watched Tony double-time it out of the sitting room. “I love it when you do that.”

Shrugging, Natasha said, “Gotta admit, it never gets old.”

“If you haven’t eaten yet, I can add your order to the one we already have out to the kitchen. We never get to sit and chat.”

Natasha smile. “Sure. But only if Steve joins us. I’m sure he’s missed girl talk.”

Holding up one hand, Steve shook his head. “There are many things I miss from the 40s, but ‘girl talk’ isn’t one of them. Thank you for the invitation. Please enjoy without me.”

And then the three of them were gone, too.

Buffy popped up from where she was sitting next to Bruce so she could drag the low-slung coffee table closer. When she sat on it, her knees brushed against Bruce’s. Dawn, sitting in the corner of the sofa, drew her legs up and curled herself around Bruce’s arm. Buffy reached for Bruce’s hand.

Eyebrows slowly rising, Bruce met her in the middle. “You know this isn’t exactly putting me at ease,” he said as his much larger hand engulfed hers.

“There’s really no good way to do this, than to remind you that I’m, y’know, all hale and hearty-like. At least right now.”

Bruce’s hand spasmed around Buffy’s. “Right now?”

“The truth is, I’ve kinda died.”

“What?” Bruce’s hand jerked.

“Twice.”

“What?!” He tried yanking Buffy’s hand from his so he could stand and pace, but between her enhanced strength and Dawn throwing all her bodyweight against him, Bruce was effectively pinned down.

“Yeah. I know. And there’s a lot of other messed up stuff that I probably should get some therapy for someday except, y’know, the last time I tried to tell someone about the slayer stuff? I kinda got sent to a mental institution.”

Bruce stiffened. “That’s why Hank and Joyce--”

“Yeah. That’s why.” Sighing heavily, Buffy squeezed her father’s hand tightly but not too tight. “On the other hand, I’ve kinda saved the world a few times, so I guess the checks and balances balance.”

Rolling her eyes, Dawn said, “Whistler would be so pleased.”

“Who’s Whistler.”

“You don’t wanna know,” the sisters said together. “Seriously,” Buffy added. “Not exactly because he’s evil, but, ugh, annoying?! So annoying. That’s when his horrible fashion sense isn’t making your eyes bleed.” Buffy shuddered.

Bruce chuckled. He would have also covered his eyes with the hand that Buffy wasn’t holding, but Dawn still had a firm grip on that arm. Instead he took a deep breath. “This is...not what I was expecting. At all.”

Buffy nodded. “I know.”

“And if you two girls weren’t here, I might be going a little green right now.”

Buffy raised their joined hands. “Figured that.”

“This also explains why you didn’t freak out when I told you about my little anger problem.”

“Eh...I kinda did? Because, y’know, you’re my Bruce and I love you. But also…” She winced, her eyes skittering away from his face. “But also because I was scared that someday I might have to be the Slayer instead of your Buffy and take you down.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

“That...that would have been bad.”

“Yeah,” Buffy and Dawn said together, Dawn burrowing deeper into Bruce’s side. “But you’re still you,” she said into his shoulder.

“And you’re still you,” Bruce said as he squeezed Buffy’s hand. “A little more grown up, but you.”

Buffy smiled.

“And I’m not real.”

“Dawn!”

“What? We have to tell him sometime!”

“Now he’s gonna freak out!”

“He is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is--” Dawn, who was sitting up by now, feet firmly planted on the floor, leaned back to look at Bruce. “Are you laughing at us?”

He was.

Buffy shrugged. “If it’s this or ‘rowr’, I pick this. Now that that’s temporarily settled, how long do you think before our breakfasts come? Airline food was not meant to keep up with Slayer metabolism.”

“What is?”

Ignoring her sister, Buffy stood up. “I’m gonna call Pepper. Ask her about the fooding.” She wandered in the direction of the kitchen, presumably to look for a pre-breakfast snack.

JARVIS’ voice could be heard as he responded to Buffy in the kitchen: “I may be of some assistance.”

“So…” Bruce shifted so that he was facing Dawn, the honorary daughter he’d known since the womb and who, it turned out, was also his biological child. “You’re my kid. Genetically speaking.”

“Yup.” Dawn bobbed her head.

“Even though by the time you came on the scene, me and Buffy’s mother hadn’t been together in years.”

Dawn’s head bopped slowly from side to side as she shrugged. “If you say so. I’m not touching that one.”

Bruce laughed softly. “Okay, how about, even though Joyce called me herself to tell me that they were having another child, but that Buffy would always be their firstborn. And that I got newborn pics--”

“Ew, they sent those? Please say not the ones where I’m dressed up like a bumble bee.”

“Oh, those too. But Hank also mailed me pictures of you in the NICU incubator, still covered in vernix.”

“Ugh...and here I though they loved me!”

Bruce chuckled. “I still have both pictures in my wallet.” His free hand moved towards his back pocket. “Wanna see?”

Dawn’s hand shot out. “No! Just no. I believe you.” She shuddered.

Still smiling, Bruce said, “Then how are you my daughter? You know I’ve always loved you like you were my own. It didn’t matter that you weren’t genetically related to me. But the test we took earlier today says you are. And even before the test, both you and Buffy insisted that you were. How? Humor your old man and his need for scientific proof.”

Sighing heavily, Dawn shook her head. “I can tell you how, but it’s not gonna satisfy your need for science.”

“You girls said it was magic earlier.”

Dawn shrugged. “That’s more or less what it boils down to.” Uncoiling herself from Bruce’s side, Dawn sat back against the arm of the sofa. “See...I don’t really exist. I mean, I do obviously! I’m right here, we’re speaking, I too am in want of the warm yummy pancake goodness. But Dawn Summers? As a real, live, human being? She didn’t exist until a few years ago. All the memories you have, the pictures, the letters, the drawings… Anything from before Buffy’s first year of college? Magically induced.”

“The baby pictures?”

“Genuine fakes.”

“That scar on your shin from when I let you try to do tricks on your skateboard?”

“There, but not.”

“The signing of the Sixth Grade Accords?”

“The SGA?” Dawn gave him a sad smile. “Never happened.”

“The Eight Grade Amendment?”

“Nope.”

“That birthday party when--”

“None of the birthday parties.”

Bruce sat back and ran a hand down his face. “I… Wow.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“No, no, sweetheart. Don’t be sorry,” he said as he gathered Dawn up in his arms. Bruce kissed the crown of her head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. So what are you?”

“A ball of mystical energy that can open portals between dimensions?” she said into chest. “And I guess I needed protecting from some big bad evil, so the monks who were in charge of me somehow mystically made me out of the slayer’s DNA.”

“Hmm.”

They sat quiet and curled up together for a long moment, listening to the vague sounds of Buffy chatting with Tony’s AI, and sharing their heartbeats until Bruce tipped Dawn’s face up so she would look at him. “If these monk people made you out of Buffy’s DNA, wouldn’t that make you her daughter?”

_“Ew! No way!”_ Buffy shouted from the kitchen.

Dawn snorted. “Slayer hearing for the win.”

“But I’m just saying--”

_“Bruce, take that back!”_

Dawn buried her face in Bruce’s shoulders as she dissolved into giggles.

Fin[ite]


End file.
